The number of residential planning applications in London fell by nearly a third, year-on-year, in the first quarter of 2018 despite an active start in the UK as a whole.
Activity in the capital dipped from 2,000 applications in Q1 2017 to just 1,362 in the first quarter of this year – a 32% drop. The number of homes submitted for planning fell from 41,564 to 32,602.
On the commercial side, the fall in London’s activity has been more subdued, though still significant, at -16.8% year-on-year.
Although the slowdown in London was particularly sharp in Q1, activity has been on a downward trend since Q2 2017.
Paul Wellman, senior analyst at EG, said: “The numbers may appear bleak at first. However, we should account for the pause from many developers owing to local elections across the capital in early May, which slowed things down considerably.
“The market in general is in quite a state of flux, with uncertainty around falling values towards the upper end of the market, and of course Brexit.
“With local elections now out of the way, the true test of planning activity and the health of the market will come when we take stock of the data in three months’ time.”
Despite stagnation in the capital, the number of planning applications across the UK rose by 6.4% on the start of 2017, spurred by the second-most active quarter in residential applications in the past three years – behind Q4 2017.
Some 11,242 residential applications were submitted, adding 213,000 potential new homes to the UK’s pipeline. More than 40% of these homes are in London and the South East.
Despite Q1 being slightly less busy than the end of 2017, the time taken on planning decisions increased for the first time since the end of 2015. The average speed for a permission was 60 days – up from just 50 at the end of the year, though significantly faster than before 2017 when decisions would take months.
Cornwall was the most active local council with 342 planning applications, while Aberdeenshire took the prize as the fastest local authority among the 50 most active at 48.6 days for a decision.
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